Even after agreeing to a record $ 150 million franchise contract with George Springer last night, the Blue Jays are trying to strike a deal with a designated outfielder / hitter Michael Brantley, by Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic (Twitter link) There are “legitimate legs” for a possible Springer / Brantley package, TSN’s Scott Mitchell adds, noting that Jays are “very open” to this type of agreement, despite the abundance of external options already on the list.
Of course, few of Jays’ internal options can plausibly stack for Brantley at the table. The 33-year-old has been among the best pure hitter in the sport throughout his career in the Major League, and since his power developed in a 27-year campaign in 2014, he has been one of the best players in the sport in general. . .
In that time, Brantley recorded 731 games and recorded 3145 plate appearances, while posting a brilliant .311 / .371 / .481 hitting line. He had an 8.3 percent hike from those plate appearances and has been one of the toughest players to hit, rooting for just 10.1 percent.
Brantley just closed a $ 32 million two-year deal in Houston, where he and Springer were teammates and, as Rosenthal explored over the weekend by first suggesting an NBA-style “offer package” , where they became close friends. Given Brantley’s consistency and recent excellence in Houston, another multi-year deal seems likely.
In addition to the relationship between Springer and Brantley, the Blue Jays office knows exactly what kind of player and teammate they would hire at Brantley. President / CEO Mark Shapiro was the general manager of the Indians when Cleveland acquired Brantley from the Brewers in 2009 CC Sabathia blockbuster, while current GM Ross Atkins of Jays was Cleveland’s director of player development at the time. Brantley was still in Cleveland at the time when Shapiro and Atkins were hired by the Blue Jays.
There are a multitude of ways for the Jays to make an alignment work, where Brantley eventually joined the fray. Presumably, he split his time between the left field and the designated hitter, joining Springer, Teoscar Hernandez and Lourdes Gurriel Jr. on that external field carousel. Randal Grichuk and Derek Fisher it seems the external bets most likely to be squeezed out of play time, but this is largely true, even with only Springer on board. Grichuk, who still owed $ 28 million for the next three seasons, would seem an even more likely commercial candidate than if Brantley were hired.
Adding Brantley would also decrease the HD time available for Rowdy Tellez. Jays could help you with first base mixing if they were committed to giving Vladimir Guerrero Jr. another shot at third base, although the general expectation is that Guerrero will eventually establish himself as a designated first baseman / hitter. The Jays could try to move Gurriel from the left field back to the inner field, either in second base or third base (depending on where Cavan Biggio established), although such internal alignment could come with some notable defensive issues.
All this, of course, is to put the cart before the horse, unless or until negotiations with Brantley gain strength. These “problems” are also the kind of headaches that reconstruction teams hope to face as they struggle through their lean years; having “many” talented hitters for nine spots in the lineup is hardly a bad thing, and the inherent depth associated with this situation has become one of the hallmarks of clubs of the World Series caliber in recent years. And, as Mitchell notes, signing Brantley would allow Jays to feel even more comfortable by diving into their outer field and taking the depth to improve the team of pitchers in the commercial market.
Regardless of whether Brantley finally joined Springer in Toronto (or Buffalo), one of the broader conclusions of interest to the Blue Jays is that this is a team that still wants to improve, even after adding Springer and agreeing to terms with the older Fathers next Kirby Yates. Toronto is still more than $ 80 million away from the $ 210 million luxury tax barrier and, assuming a uniform spread of Springer’s $ 25 million annual salary, has only about $ 98 million in guaranteed contracts, spread between 12 players. For a team that has increased its payroll twice north of $ 160 million (2017-18), there is still an enormous amount of space for further additions.